Review: The Savage Grace by Bree Despain

The Savage Grace by Bree Despain
Published: March 13th, 2012; EgmontUSA
488 pages

From Goodreads:
 A troubled soul. An impossible choice. A final battle.

Wrestling with the werewolf curse pulsing deep inside of her, Grace Divine was finally able to find her brother, but it nearly cost her everything.

With her boyfriend, Daniel, stuck in wolf form and Sirhan's death approaching, time is running out for Grace to stop Caleb Kalbi and his gang of demons. If she fails, her family and hometown will perish. Everything rests on Grace's shoulders.

The final installment in The Dark Divine trilogy brings Daniel and Grace's love story to a breathtaking conclusion.

My Rating:
4 stars

My Thoughts:

In the final installment of the dark divine series, Grace Divine is still the somewhat angsty teen she’s always been (no thanks to the homicidal werewolf possessing her), but she’s faced with bigger problems than she ever had before; Daniel is stuck in wolf form, her mom is in a mental hospital, Caleb Kalbi has escaped, swearing revenge on his son and the Divine family, and Sirhan Etlu (leader of the Etlu clan of werewolves) is dying. If I was in the same situation, I’d probably be a ball of nerves as well.

The relationship between Grace and Daniel is one of the high points in this book. They had moved past their high school relationship and were more of adults when they were together (Daniel kept Grace from going crazy, and vice versa). They couldn’t keep their hands off of each other from time to time, but ultimately, the relationship they shared helped each of them grow, so I enjoyed that aspect of the book. Also, Daniel – post wolf transformation – was no longer described as skinny, or lanky, which was something that had kept me from being a huge fan of his in the first two books. He was a full on “beef cake” this time around, which I was a big fan of.

Talbot, on the other hand, made me sad. I liked him in the second book – sure he was a little intense at times, and we found out he was Caleb’s right hand man, but still, I’m a sucker for the tall dark and handsome types. With Grace and Daniel’s relationship on steady ground, Talbot was shut out. I felt bad for him, but to resist spoiling the book, I won’t say any more than that.

The pack of boys who recognized Daniel as their Alpha at the end of book two returned in the final book, and the “Lost Boys” (as Grace calls them) were good comic relief at points in the book, and they also showed Grace maturing as she mothered them and thought about their welfare, as if they were her own children (awwww!)

My definite favorite part of this book was the awesome fight scenes. It’s a given that there was going to be a final battle between Daniel and Caleb, and the way Bree Despain set up the climax of the book made it a ton more awesome than a father and son going at each other in hand-to-hand combat. The final 50 pages of the book were pretty epic, let me just say that.

My problems with this book, however, kept me from giving it 5 stars. I’ll try not to go on about them for too long, since this was a really great book, but they also kept me from being completely absorbed while I was reading.

First off, parts of the book seemed to drag. It’s kind of long at 488 pages, but that’s mainly because the author can be very descriptive times. This is kind of a neutral thing to me, because I would rather read a well-written descriptive book that’s really long, than a 200 page book that has no detail. I really enjoy Despain’s writing style, so I don’t feel like I wasted my time with this book. I just couldn’t get completely into it.

Also, certain characters in the book annoyed me. I haven’t liked April from the start of the series; she was a sad excuse for a best friend, and I didn’t really see her as a necessary character. Sadly, Grace was also annoying from time to time. When she said she didn’t have a life if they couldn’t change Daniel back into a human, I could practically see the blank pages in Twilight when Edward left Bella. Yes, most of the books I read are about romance, but a heroine should have an identity outside of her relationship with the hero.

My final problem was that the book was pretty predictable at times. I like a book that surprises me, and this one really didn’t.

Overall, The Savage Grace was really good. I like Bree Despain’s writing style, and most of the characters she created. Some parts of the book could have been better, but I would still recommend reading this book if you enjoyed the first two books in the Dark Divine series.